Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Srdja Popovic was one of the founders and
key organizers of the Serbian nonviolent resistance group Otpor! Otpor!’s
campaign to unseat Serbian president Slobodan Milosovic found success in
October 2000 when hundreds of thousands of protestors converged upon and took
over the Serbian Parliament, effectively ending Milosevic’s rule. After the
revolution, Popovic served a term as a member of the Serbian National Assembly
2000-2003.

In 2003, Popovic and other ex-Otpor!
activists started the non-profit educational institution the Centre for Applied
Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) (www.canvasopedia.org).
CANVAS has worked with people from 37 different countries, including Zimbabwe, Burma,
Iran, and Venezuela,
spreading the knowledge on nonviolent strategies and tactics that was used by
the Serbian pro-democracy movement to other non-democratic countries. CANVAS
has worked with the activists responsible for successful movements such as the
Georgian “Rose Revolution” of 2003 and the Ukrainian “Orange Revolution” of
2004-2005. It also transferred knowledge to Lebanese activists in 2004 to
address the crisis after the assassination of Prime Minister Harriri, and
assisted participants in the Maldives’
revolution in 2008. Recently CANVAS has worked with April 6th, a key group in
the Egyptian nonviolent uprising, as well as other groups from the Middle East.

CANVAS’ teachings are available in a
documentary, "Bringing Down a Dictator," featuring Otpor strategies
to topple Milosevic. Its manual "Nonviolent Struggle, 50 Crucial
Points" was translated into 16 languages, including Farsi and Arabic, and
was downloaded 17,000 times from Iran during that country's 2009
protests.

1970 in Saint
Petersburg (RU, then USSR), lives and works in Vienna
(AT)

Anna Jermolaewa was brought up in
Petrograd (present day Saint
Petersburg, Russia).
She suffered persecution in 1989 due to her editorial work for the magazine Democratic Opposition. She subsequently
left Russia and has since
been living and working in Vienna.
Her video works, predominantly designed as documentaries, reflect the everyday,
allegedly stable dimensions of our reality, and uncover its ambivalent, absurd,
and bizarre aspects by employing a variety of filmic devices.
In the photographic work Kremlin
Doppelgänger, Jermolaewa focuses on the symbol of Russian state power, present all over the
world in the press in the form of pompous military parades. The artist displays
a copy of history-seeped Red Square in Moscow,
namely, the Kremlin Palace Hotel in Antalya,
Turkey, which
is especially popular among Russian holidaymakers. Here, in nostalgic
surroundings, visitors may happily play in the water, sunbathe, enjoy a meal,
or shop. In the video of the same name, even Mikhail Gorbachev’s doppelganger
appears at the poolside and talks about his life in politics – each morning,
the retired engineer stencils his birthmark on his forehead.
Jermolaewa initiates a dialog between reality and fiction, between the historic
monument and its reproduction full of different content and values. She thus
draws attention to the mobility, reinterpretation, and exchangeability of
cultural or national ideas and their icons in the age of globalization, and the
general fictitiousness of history. Which of the two phenomena is the more
ominous, the original symbolic site or its copy, remains a matter of debate.

Analysing 323 violent and non violent campaigns from 1900-2006...Violent Revolution has 26% chances of success,Non Violent Struggles have 56% chances of success...The probability of a democarcy 5 years after -with a violent revolution 5% and with a non violent revolution 41%.

Non violent revolution can recruit everyone.It can be PARTICIPATORY.

The 3 principles of a success...UNITY PLANNING NON VIOLENT DISCIPLINE

LAUGHTIVISMHow humour effects autocrats...Politicians take themselves very seriously, but when mocked they don't know what to do.

HUMOUR melts FEAR

During the workshop Anna said there are 2 societies in Russia-

Those who get info from the internet and those who get info from the state controlled newspapers and tv.

Time for
Outrage!

In October 2010, his essay, Time for Outrage! (original French
title: Indignez-vous!), was published in an edition
of 6,000 copies (ISBN
978-1455509720 ). It has sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide
and has been translated into Swedish, Basque, Catalan, Italian,
German. Greek, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish,Croatian, Hebrew, and
Korean. Translations into Japanese, Hungarian, and other languages are planned.
In the United States,
The Nation magazine's March 7–14, 2011 issue published the entire essay
in English. Hessel's booklet argues that the French
need to again become outraged, as were those who participated in the Resistance
during World War II. Hessel's reasons for personal outrage include the growing
gap between the very rich and the very poor, France's treatment of its illegal
immigrants, the need to re-establish a free press, the need to protect the
environment, importance of protecting the French welfare
system, and the plight of Palestinians, recommending that people read the
September 2009 Goldstone
Report. He calls for peaceful and non-violent insurrection. In 2011, one of the names given to the Spanish protests against corruption and
bipartisan politics was Los Indignados (the outraged), taken from
the title of the book's translation there (¡Indignaos!). These protests,
in conjunction with the Arab Spring, later helped to inspire other
protests in many countries, including Greece, UK, Chile, Israel, and Occupy Wall Street which began in New York's
financial district, but has now spread across the
United States and numerous other countries. Ongoing protests in Mexico challenging corruption,
drug cartel violence, economic hardship and policies also have been called the
Indignados.

‘Happenings are
events that, put simply happen. Though the best of them have a decided
impact-that is, we feel “here is something important”-they appear to go nowhere
and do not make any particular literary point.’

Participants are invited to relax in the space and have some cake and a
drink.

Participants are asked to play in the space.

Please use any of the materials provided if you wish.

From 10-10.30 please communicate without talking.

Ideas are discussed.

Participants are asked to leave.

Thank you

Materials

Fabric

Tape

Some things out of the recycling bin

Plasticine

Markers

Digital Camera

Assorted musical instruments

Cardboard

Cake

Warm Drinks

Pegs

String

Cardboard tubes

Paper

Tent poles

Boxes

Scissors

Our Work in Progress Questions

What makes a space a creative space?

What makes creativity happen?

How can we encourage somebody to be playful?

What is play?

What is creativity?

What do you need to be able
to play?

What do you need to be
uninhibited?

Why don’t we play?

What stops us doing?

What in a space stops us playing?

What in a space stops us making?

What is drawing?

What is ‘good’ drawing?

Why don’t we draw?

Why do we draw?

When does teaching flow?

When does learning flow?

How can teaching flow?

How can learning flow?

How do you organise your
learning environment?

Laura
Robinson and Liz Stirling have invited you to their space.

They share
the space with the artist Paul Digby his drawings are on the walls. They also
share their space with their children Edith (8), Arthur (8), Frank (6), Martha
(6) and Polly (10 months).

Their
research is about learning, creativity, childhood, space and play.

The space
has triggered a focused period realising how a space initiates creativity.

The
activities so far have all been collaborations. Laura and Liz are interested in
equality within the learning environment and how we can collaborate whatever
our backgrounds, age, profession or physical capabilities…

There is
no hierarchy within the space we try to make is as playful and idea led as
possible… We try to flow!

It is a
free flowing space where we want participants to be relaxed and empowered by
their activity.

References

Below are some interesting aspects of the recent Ofsted study, the study
was in 91 schools and colleges all over the country.

On Drawing
in education:

Drawing as a form of communication has transcended
history and cultures. In arts education it is viewed as central to students’
visual and creative thinking. Drawing is a key skill for pupils wishing to work
in the sector. This is reflected in its specific inclusion in examination
assessment criteria, in course content and research in further and higher
education. Since the last survey, international interest in drawing and the
range of accreditation specifically focused on drawing, have increased.[1] Pupils of all ages
cited drawing as one of the most important subject skills. Perceptions of their
own drawing abilities were often at the heart of their attitude to the subject.

However, inspection findings highlighted that the
notion that ‘everyone can draw’ is not being kept alive beyond the early stages of schooling. Discussions with
pupils across the primary school age
range revealed that many pupils’ confidence in drawing diminished incrementally
as they got older. Pupils who had
lost interest in drawing usually perceived that they
were not good at it, especially in recording appearances accurately.

Teaching
all pupils to draw with confidence and creativity was too low a priority in too
many schools. If art, craft and design education is to play a full part in
helping pupils ‘make a mark’ in the
future, drawing can no longer remain a concern without a cause.

This next extract highlights successful strategies
in art, craft and design education:

Strong inclusive practice went beyond ensuring that
different groups of students progressed at similar rates. Outstanding provision
ensured that no opportunities were missed to promote equality and diversity.
Strategies included:

·reference
to artists, craftmakers and designers whose work challenged gender or ethnic
stereotypes, or showed how disabilities had been overcome

·clear
explanation about the value of individual and collaborative, intellectual and
practical, aesthetic and functional work in the context of different times and
cultures

·lessons
that took account of students’ prior attainment and their
preferred learning styles

·topics
that enabled students to explore their own cultural interests as well as
stimulating interest in unfamiliar cultures, past and present

·use
of diverse examples of students’ work that conveyed a clear message about high
quality taking many different forms

·good-quality
resources to help students, their parents and carers afford specialist tools
and materials for use at home, or information about how to access funding for
gallery visits.

'As direct play is denied to adults and
gradually discouraged in children, the impulse to play emerges not in true
games alone, but in unstated ones of power and deception: people find
themselves playing less with each other than on or off each other.'
Also 'in play one is carefree in a game one is anxious about winning'

Allan
Kaprow in The Education of the Un-Artist Part 2 (1972)

To allow children to be
completely free to play as much as they like.
Creative and imaginative play is an essential part of childhood and
development. Spontaneous, natural play should not be undermined or redirected
by adults into learning experiences. Play belongs to the child.
Summerhill Policy Statement

Ernest Schachtel
in 'On Memory and Childhood Amnesia': 'The adult is usually not capable of
experiencing what the child experiences; more often than not he is not even
capable of imagining what the child experiences.' he talks about the newness
of everything for the child...

‘I think that it is a mark of mutual respect that
all persons involved in a Happening be willing and committed participants who
have a clear idea of what they are to do. This is simply accomplished by
writing out the scenario or score for all and discussing it thoroughly
beforehand. In this respect it is not different from the preparations for a
parade, a football match, a wedding or religious service. It is not even
different from play. The one big difference is that while knowledge of the
scheme is necessary, professional talent is not; the situations in a Happening
are lifelike or, if they are unusual, are so rudimentary that professionalism
is actually uncalled for. Actors are stage trained and bring over habits from
their art that are hard to shake off; the same is true of any other kind of
showman or trained athlete. The best participants have been persons not
normally engaged in art or performance, but who are moved to take part in an
activity that is at once meaningful to them in its ideas yet natural in its
methods.’ Allan Kaprow

‘How does it feel to be in
Flow?

1 Completely involved in
what you are doing-focused, concentrated

2 A sense of ecstasy-of
being outside everyday reality

3 Great inner
clarity-knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing

4 Knowing that the
activity is doable-that our skills are adequate to the task

5 A sense of serenity-no
worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego

6 Timelessness-thoroughly
focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes

7 Intrinsic
motivation-whatever produces flow becomes its own reward’

Csikszentmihalyi

Biographies of key references

Allan Kaprow – ‘Happenings’Kaprow (1927 –2006) was an
American artist and a pioneer of the concepts of performance art and
"Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. To
Kaprow, a happening was “activities engaged in by participants for the sake of
playing." There was no distinction or hierarchy between artist and viewer.
Kaprow's most famous happenings began around 1961 to 1962, when he would take
students or friends out to a specific site to perform a small action. Kaprow
developed techniques to prompt a creative response from the audience. He rarely
recorded his Happenings which made them a one time occurrence. He has published
extensively and was Professor Emeritus in the Visual Arts Department of the University of California,
San Diego.

Colin Ward – writings on urban childhood

Author and social
theorist, Ward (1924-2010) is renowned as a pioneer in urban education and the
founder-editor of the ‘Bulletin for Environmental Education’. He wrote the
seminal ‘The Child in the City’ (1978), and ‘Streetwork: The Exploding School’
(1973), with Tony Fyson. His vision was to get children out of school and into
their communities, to talk to local people, explore their neighbourhood, and
understand how buildings, streets, ­landscapes and social life interact. Ward
explored the myriad and subtle ways in which the child has used the street in
the past and still does today. Against this background he asks what can be done
to make the links between the city and child more fruitful and enjoyable for
both. His work raises urgent questions for teachers, parents, and
policy-makers.

Nils Norman

Norman (born 1966) is an English artist with a vision of
how cities should be used expressed through art and activism. In 2007, his work
in Tate Modern’s Global Cities exhibition featured posters displaying
ecological and environmental information as a comment on bad urban planning,
architecture and street design. Norman’s
work reacts to the apparent homogenization of urban spaces in regeneration
projects and has been compared to the urban projects of artists such as Claes
Oldenburg, Robert Smithson, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Krzysztof Wodiczko. Norman has experimented
with theorist Colin Ward's 1973 thesis "Streetwork" and has also
referenced Cedric Price, especially Price's "Non-Plan".

Claire Bishop

Bishop (born 1971) is an
art historian, theorist and critic widely acclaimed for her writing on
socially-engaged art. Bishop is editor of the highly regarded volumes Participation (2006) and Installation Art: A Critical History
(2005) and is a contributor to many art journals including Artforum, Flash Art, and October;
her essay “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics,” which appeared in October in 2004, remains an influential
critique of relational aesthetics. In 2008 she co-curated (with Mark Sladen)
the exhibition Double Agent (ICA, London;
Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre; and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead). Bishop is associate professor
of art history at CUNY Graduate Center, New
York. Her previously professorial roles include
Department of Art History, University
of Warwick, and Visiting
Professor in the Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art.

Palle Nielsen. ‘The
Model - A Model for a Qualitative Society’
(Born 1942) In 1968, the young activist Palle
Nielsen approached the Moderna Museet in Stockholm
with a proposal for turning the museum into an adventure playground. For a
month, his ‘Model for a Qualitative Society' offered a space exclusively for
children, without parents or educators. In his essay on this project, Lars Bang
Larsen analyses the utopia of a self-organized society that aimed to encourage
personal freedom and collaboration between individuals. The documentation of
this work forms part of the MACBA Collection, Barcelona.

Lars
Bang Larsen
Born in 1972 in Silkeborg, Denmark, Larsen is an art historian at the University of Copenhagen. He has co-curated group
exhibitions such as “A History of Irritated Material,” Raven Row, London (2010), “Populism,” Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam
(2005), “La insurrección invisible de un millón de mentes,” Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2005), and “The Echo Show,” Tramway, Glasgow (2003), a. o. His
books include The Model: A Model for a Qualitative Society, 1968 (2010)
and Sture Johannesson (2002).

Artur
ŻmijewskiŻmijewski (born 1966) is a Polish visual artist, filmmaker
and photographer. He is an author of short video movies and photography
exhibitions, which were shown all over the world. One of Zmijewski's many
portraits of social exclusion, ‘The Singing Lesson II’, features a choir of
deaf teens cacophonously belting out Bach. Rather than giving them the sympathy
vote, the artist confronts us with their overwhelming otherness. Zmijewski has
said that it is not enough for art to ask questions. Rather, artists need to
get real and provide some arguments. His solo show If It Happened Only Once
It’s As If It Never Happened was at Kunsthalle Basel in 2005, the same year
in which he represented Poland
at the 51st Venice Biennale. He has shown in Documenta 12 (2007), Manifesta 4
(2002), and the Museum of Modern Art, New
York as part of their Projects’ Series (2009).
In 2009, Cornerhouse, Manchester, presented the
first major UK
survey of Zmijewski’s work.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi born September 29, 1934, in Fiume, Italy
– now Rijeka, Croatia) is a Hungarianpsychology professor, who emigrated to the
United States at the age of 22. He is noted for both his work in the study of happiness and creativity and also for his notoriously
difficult name, in terms of pronunciation for non-native speakers of the Hungarian language,
but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow
and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He is the author of
many books and over 120 articles or book chapters. Martin Seligman, former president of the American
Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's
leading researcher on positive psychology.
Csikszentmihalyi once said "Repression is not the way to virtue. When
people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity
diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still
kept within the bounds of reason."
His works are influential and are widely cited.

The Dialogue of a Hands
An interactive sculpture park made in a previously disused outside space at Glasgow City College: East Gymnasium
(The invigilators said that students had not really known the space was there and was available)
Immediately on our arrival an invigilator gave us a map of the space.
They invited us to 'have fun, do what we want, explore, interact....'

We walked straight towards the big yellow tubes and discovered they were drums and played..
The sunny end of the park was next to a busy road surrounded by incredible 60s architecture.
We then went our separate ways and played independently in the space and with all the interactive elements.
Characteristically I noticed all the things that weren't 'sculptures' and all the things we weren't allowed to do...
Behind the invigilators' 'shed' were mops, watering cans, pots of paint, brushes...The invigilators said they weren't part of the show.

Hanging on hooks on the side were beautiful curtains, flags, to interact with...We could attach linen 'flags' 'curtains' 'shields' (with press studs) to the Wooden climbing frame /wendy house structure...
The perimeter was made up, of buildings and tall metal fencing that supported the young tree which were part of the park
(the college was considering buying the trees according to an invigilator)

Children arrived and rushed straight towards the large yellow tubes which had kettle drums attached the noise made was marvellous, loud and fun. You couldn't climb through the tubes or climb on them which was frustrating.

The beautiful sculptures were inviting and safe.
The space was big enough for children to run around, play hide and seek, chasing...
During the duration of the show there had been a session for children to make a cape...an invigilator said that this had been a lovely event with lots of children wearing their cape and chasing each other around the space. I wanted to wear a cape...I wanted to make a lasting mark...

Hopefully the park will stay there forever and children will find out about it and it will be a regular non invigilated space....or maybe just the students from the college will use the sapce more with or with out the park.....

'The East Gymnasium, which despite its city centre location, is hidden
from view and previously unused, will be landscaped in homage to the
1960s environments of Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica, using natural
materials and plants, as in Oiticica's seminal participation project
Eden (Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1969). The exhibition will also
reference Palle Nielsen's famous Model for a Qualitative Society
(Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1968) which similarly explored the
boundaries between art/play, control/freedom and adulthood/childhood.' Three Blows

Constructing and re-constructing Childhood: New Labour and Coalition approaches to childhood

Two models of childhood

The New Labour child experiences more-regulation: assessment and measurement: social investment: holistic approaches: professional involvement: planned and strategic approaches.

The Coalition child experiences less-regulation: and less social investment: is the 'educated' child rather than the 'holistic' child: a more 'privatised' and less 'public' existence: more localised variation.

What can we work with that's progressive and what do we need to fight against?

Nick Frost says

We need to work with progressive elements-eg. Health and well-being Boards.

We need to work with less progressive elements-eg. Social Investment bonds

We need to oppose the negative impact on children- 'in and against the State?'

Dr Dot Moss

Children's Political Engagement: Social justice and social change.

Rather than focusing on government, party politics and children's formal participation, the research explores children's everyday experience of social change.

Please see stories photographed from Dot's research.

She concluded:

-Social events are politicized in everyday childhood through political background noise and selective social memory.

-Children's political understanding develops in relation to experiences, their fears and caring connections with others.

-Children's political alignment is a temporal process. It may be the outcome of a long process of exclusion; this is how Rachel came to feminism. It may involve critical turning points, such as Paulina, learning of a death in custody. It may be a temporary or more permanent alignment; with other children and with adults.

In the round table and 1 to 1 discussions of the day some areas of key interest were:

Children 'bunking off' school to protest against the cuts

A girl protecting a vehicle during the riots by sitting on it she stopped the vandalism

Unfair assumptions made about young people

Prince Henry's school in Otley didn't want to become an 'academy' and pupils campaigned against it happening

Attendance a key target for many schools has a direct effect on many families children not wanting to be ill and therefore let the class down by being off

SPACE children need space THEREFORE less furniture

These are the abstracts for the day:

Professor Lori Beckett

‘Leading Learning’: local knowledge-building across Leeds

This
presentation describes the work done in city-wide school-university
partnerships supporting practitioner researchers in networks of
disadvantaged schools
to identify and respond to the effects of poverty and deprivation among
other background factors that affect pupils’ learning and academic
success. It will articulate the logistics of the ‘Leading Learning’ CPD
programme over 3 years, notably the inter-connected
city-wide seminars for school Heads and staff and the school
cluster-based meetings led by designated academic partners who are
responsive to teachers’ needs, school priorities and cluster focus. The
combined task is to facilitate teachers’ learning about
disadvantaged pupils’ performance and attainment including progress,
and capacity for practitioner research into classroom practices for deep
understanding about raising achievement. The optional MA accreditation
enables deep knowledge of the complexities
of ‘poverty and education’ work in local classrooms,
school-communities, and clusters. Named as part of the Leeds City
Council’s School Improvement Plan 2011-2015, termed the
Leeds Education Challenge, this work demonstrates local capacity
where schools work in unison with Leeds Met and the Local Authority to
develop an arsenal of critical ideas in the struggle to improve schools
which are in turn battling against social
and educational inequalities.

Dr Viv Caruana

Internationalisation of Higher Education: a key concept in social and educational research?

Through
consideration of recent research in the field this short presentation
shows how internationalisation of HE is a multi-faceted phenomenon which
transcends
the boundaries of marketization discourse and is inextricably linked
with other key agenda in the HE and wider educational sectors.
Furthermore, the paper suggests that internationalisation is a key
concept in educational and social research, since it requires
a radical re-assessment of the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of teaching and
learning.

Professor Nick Frost

Constructing and re-constructing childhood: New Labour and Coalition approaches to childhood

‘New Labour’s period in power included an attempt to fundamentally reform and re-structure childhood through the
Every Child Matters programme. This programme effectively ceased
with the election of the Coalition government in May, 2010. Drawing on a
number of related projects it will be argued that the Coalition
childhood policy is fundamentally different in many
ways from the New Labour project. The implications for policy, practice
and research will be considered’

Dr Dot Moss

Children’s Political Engagement: Social Justice and Social Change

This considers the form of children’s
political engagement in everyday life: social justice and social change.
It shares research on
how children politically engage focusing on everyday experiences of
injustice and social change. Social events are politicized in childhood
through ‘political background noise’. Political understanding develops
in relation to experiences, fears and caring
connections. Political alignment may be temporary or more permanent;
formal and less formal.

Dr Jacqueline Stevenson, Pauline Whelan

The disappearing discourse(s) of social justice in higher education?

In this
presentation,
we discuss the performative appearances and disappearances of social
justice discourses across the higher education landscape. Focusing on
the discursive mediation of
enactments of social justice at the macro, meso and micro levels, we
discuss a range of research projects, including narrative interviews
with refugees and an analysis of widening participation policy. We
discuss what the visibilities and invisibilities of
dominant discourses reveal about the socially (un/)just nature of
contemporary higher education in England.

Professor Colin Webster and Dr Sarah Kingston

Negotiating Identity and Social Cohesion: Young people on religion

Thomas (2011) in
Youth, Multiculturalism and Community Cohesion argues that
criticisms of community cohesion are misplaced because they ignore the
limitations of previous ‘multicultural’ policy. While rejecting narrow
uses of 'community cohesion' predicated on the misnomers
of first, the supposed failure of previous ‘multicultural’ policy, and
second, simplistic claims about ethnic and religious segregation, we
agree with Thomas that properly understood, cohesion is a workable
aspiration among young people on the ground. From
our empirical study of the meanings young people (n. 10.5k) in
Bradford, Newham and Hillingdon place on ethnic and religious diversity
we argue that white and minority young people are clearly positive about
religious and ethnic diversity in the schools and
places we studied. In contrast to Thomas’s study however, an underlying
anxiety among young people in neighbourhoods about ethnic and religious
difference, seen in territoriality, the existence of faith schools, and
in official anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Professor Terry Wrigley

Living on the edge: rethinking poverty, class and education

Research
around issues of poverty and class is arguably the most neglected area
of social justice research in education, despite the enormity of the
social
challenge. Though the correlations between childhood poverty, low
educational achievement and adult employment and lifecourse are well
established, the arguments relating them remain confused. The recurrent
circulation of ‘blame the victim’ discourses (‘underclass’,
‘culture of poverty’, ‘welfare dependency’) combine with positivist
School Effectiveness research which blames teachers and schools within a
marketised and supposedly meritocratic education system, while gaps in
outcomes and futures remain large.

This
lecture calls for greater theoretical clarity around the concept of
class, a stronger awareness of researcher perspective to avoid deficit
accounts, and
a wider imaginary of pedagogical processes. It will draw on recent case
studies, curriculum theory and Goffman’s version of symbolic
interactionism as resources for responding with solidarity to young
people ‘living on the edge’.

Bio: Terry Wrigley is visiting professor at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is author of a number of books, including
Schools of Hope (2003), Another School is Possible (2006) and most recently (as co-editor)
Changing Schools: Alternative Ways to Make a World of Difference
(2011). He is currently writing a book on poverty and education with
John Smyth, and co-editing a book on social justice for student
teachers. He edits the international journal
Improving Schools.